ECAC women told me of the many fascinating stories uncovered during the process of creating mosaics to record the town's history. The beautifully crafted series of seven mosaic plaques is yet to find a permanent home but has been officially opened for viewing at the Whaleshark Festival.

Social history forms the basis of the mosaics and this is what makes these artworks endlessly fascinating. Each plaque loosely represents 30 years of history with a multitude of miniature objects representing recovered stories from the past.

Resin holds in the naturally tactile ocean pebbles at the base of plaques, then the jigsaw-like picture is slowly and painstakingly built up to a beautiful landscape.

The first panel depicts the early days of whaling and pearling, with miniature harpoons crafted by amateur local metalworkers.

On the second panel we see the state ship Koolinda that delivered supplies to the Exmouth port in the early 20th century. There is a horse called Captain who is fondly remembered for carting drums of kerosene and other cargo from the Koolinda into storage. Mid-20th century sees the Very Low Frequency (VLF) towers of Exmouth built for the historic Harold E Holt naval communications base in 1963, shown on the mosaic in the bright reds of their night lights, alongside the prawn fishing fleets in the Gulf of Exmouth.

The mosaic panel depicting the Category 5 Cyclone Vance that hit Exmouth in 1999 has damaged light poles, pindan-red mud that covered the town, a broken boat in the newly built marina and the Red Cross emergency services.

The last panel of the series depicts current day tourism with a beautiful ocean sunrise and breaching whale. Fine metalwork rods depict a gas rig, held in place with copper wire. A whale shark, a manta ray, a skindiver and the fringing reef all add to the colourful scene.

This area now known as Ningaloo Coast was World Heritage listed in 2011 for its biological diversity and natural heritage. Conservation and development interests both coexist in Exmouth. The turtle monitoring program sits alongside the new gas processing industry and Exmouth residents are keen to preserve the beautiful natural resources that contribute to growing tourism.

These extraordinarily intricate mosaic panels will be a lasting legacy for the cultural heritage of the town of Exmouth.